Geo Dickel Single Barrel 10 years old

I picked this up at one of those pharmacy/liquor stores in Miami (this way of merchandising must be a vestige of the prohibition era) and was quite looking forward to it, I was not disappointed. It is more intense than the buff-colored and black labels with a clean but rich focused taste. It has that charcateristic mineral note of Dickel, some people have called it a "vitamins" taste. I know some people don't like that but I find it interesting, and also the fact that Dickel is so different from Jack Daniel (and other straight-type whiskey) in general. Both are made from similar mashbills and both use famously the Tennesse charcoal leaching method, but one could not taste more different than the other. I heard Dickel is distilling again in Tullahoma (I think they started up last year sometime). Clearly there is still stock around from the former production (I would guess my bottle was distilled sometime in the 80's) and should be for some time I think. Excellent whiskey and a nice change of pace from bourbon adn Jack.

Re: Geo Dickel Single Barrel 10 years old

Dickel distillation fired back up in Fall 2003. Although neither Dickel and JD carry age statements, good guesswork estimates the standard bottlings are likely around 4 years old when they're bottled. So, new distillate won't be in the bottle till around 2007. There was no distilling done at Tullahoma four 4 years prior to startup -- thus, the youngest whisk(e)y going into the bottles today is from around 1999, and the black-label #8 is generally considered younger than the 'white'-label #12 bottling.
So, one could guess that current Dickel #12 is probably 8-10 years old, or a good estimation of that old Special Reserve bottle, which was a one-time issue as part of the Bourbon Heritage Collection.
It will be interesting to see if Dickel reverts back to younger whiskies when the new distillate comes of age, and how that will affect taste profiles -- and, in turn, sales to those who've gotten used to the older stocks.

Re: Geo Dickel Single Barrel 10 years old

After several years of hunting I eventually managed to lay my hands on the Barrel Reserve around a month ago.

As I´ve mentioned before, I´m a bit of a slowie in this business so I haven´t made myself properly acquainted with this bottling yet. On the first impressions the kinship to the No. 12 is obvious. The difference being a sharp fruitiness which comes across both on the nose and on the palate. So far I like it quite a lot.

Interestingly enough, regarding the earlier "Tennessee bourbon/not bourbon" discussions, it says "Bourbon Heritage" on the neck label. Although I´m sure that this is more a consequence of practicality.